Profit-taking persists at Nigerian equities market, ASI down 33bps

Today, sell-offs persisted in the local bourse as the All-Share Index slipped 33bps to settle at 25,497.32 points following sell-pressures in Banking stocks: GUARANTY (-6.2%), ZENITH (-2.3%) and UBN (-3.9%). Accordingly, market capitalisation fell by ₦44.3bn to ₦13.3tn while YTD loss worsened to -5.0%. Activity level varied as volume traded declined 0.8% to 252.0m units while value traded advanced 0.8% to ₦2.0bn. The most traded stocks by volume were CUSTODIAN (40.1m units), FBNH (28.2m units) and ZENITH (26.0m units) while ZENITH (₦444.8m), GUARANTY (₦206.6m) and CUSTODIAN (₦192.7m) led by value.

Performance was bullish across sectors as 5 of 6 indicators that we track gained, The Banking index closed south by 3.4%, dragged by price declines in  GUARANTY (-6.2%), ZENITH (-2.3%) and UBN (-3.9%). On the other hand, the AFR-ICT and Consumer Goods indices closed higher by 0.4% apiece due to buying interest in MTNN (+0.8%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+2.5%) and HONYFLOUR (+4.4%). In the same vein, the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices advanced 0.3% and 0.2% respectively, buoyed by gains in WAPIC (+3.0%) and OANDO (+1bps). Lastly, price appreciation in CAP (+2.7%) lifted the Industrial Goods index by 1bps.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.5x from the 1.1x recorded previously as 10 stocks gained against the 19 that declined. The top gainers were HONYFLOUR (+4.4%), TRANSCORP (+3.4%) and WAPIC (+3.0%) while ARBICO (-9.6%), ROYALEX (-9.1%) and GUARANTY (-6.2%) lost the most. We expect investors to take positions in fundamentally sound stocks in the subsequent trading session.

Market Statistics for Tuesday, 8th September 2020